Crunchy Spring Salad

Most Saturday mornings I make breakfast (this past week I made these five ingredient pancakes again) & then I get sucked into the Food Network vortex. It starts with just one show & then before I know it it’s noon & The Kitchen is on - a show I’m still deciding if I like but since I watch it every weekend I guess I do. Geoffrey Zakarian is one of the hosts of the show. He intimidates me. He has iron chef status & I’m pretty sure if we met in real life he’d have a difficult time taking me seriously. But this is why he lives in my TV & I can live vicariously via his cooking tips he dishes out on Saturday mornings & then blog about them here. This weekend he made this salad that just screamed spring to me. It had cucumber, green apples, mint & lemon.  So I had to make it given Saturday was the first day we’ve had where there was a break in this polar vortex & the sun shined through & the temps peaked in the high 50s!

This time of year always makes me want to eat a little cleaner & feel a little lighter in the process so salads are always on the menu. What’s your go-to spring food?



Ingredients

• 1 seedless cucumber (the one they wrap in plastic at the super market)
• 1 green apple
• juice 1 lemon
• 1 handful of mint leaves (about 1/2 cup)
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt 
• pepper

Make it!

1. Peel (or don’t) the cucumber.
2. Wrap the cucumber in a clean kitchen towel or just a paper towel (like I did).
3. Punch the cucumber with the bottom of your fist - no really - it’s kinda fun! 
4. Slowly unroll the crushed cucumber & roughly chop it.
5. Add cucumber to your salad bowl.
6. Cut up the apple (I left the skin on) into even bite-sized chunks - about a 1/4 inch cubes.
7. Add apple to bowl.
8. Mince the mint & add to the apple & cucumber mixture.
9. In a small frying pan add the pine nuts (no oil needed the nuts will release their own oils). 
10. Pay attention to the pine nuts they will start to brown in about 2-3 minutes & then they’ll burn. Don’t let them burn they’re expensive! That would be like burning money ;)
11. When they lightly golden remove from heat & add to the salad.
12. Add the juice of one lemon to the salad ingredients & season with salt & pepper.
13. Then drizzle some olive oil over the top & give it one more toss. (You don’t need a lot of oil just a little bit other wise things will get too soggy & oily - & very unsalad-like).
14. Serve at room temperature or chilled.